Since it is Veteran’s Day weekend, and I am a veteran…and my husband will be a veteran once he relieves himself from active duty, I decided it fitting to do a Veteran’s Day Top Ten! Only problem is all of the damn songs make me cry! I can’t listen to a single one without tearing up, and by the time I get done with 10 I will be severely dehydrated and in need of IV fluids. 😦 Guess that’s what happens when you live it…personally….and it’s just sad anyway.  I don’t want to make everyone reading this cry, so I’m going to stick to the writing for this week!

Let me just start off by saying that no one….and I do mean NO ONE….knows what it’s like to be a member of the military…except a member of the military. Not the spouse, not the family….NO ONE. Words can not describe the mental shift that occurs in a military member…and non-ers (those not in the military) will never fully understand.  They don’t understand how someone could voluntarily walk into the thick of it to save a service member they’ve never met, or volunteer for a mission that they know is going to be dangerous, or share their ammo when they are running low themselves, or run toward the explosion instead of running away… and in the process, sacrificing the chance to ever see their spouse, kids, family, dog…whoever again. Would you? Would you put that all on the line to for a stranger or for a cause?  That’s what is required of a service member. Where would we be if we had a military full of people who ran away from challenges like that? We need our military to be selfless….we need heroes. 

On a less grandiose scale…working nights and weekends, being called in short notice to work or to deploy, having to stay late for a commander’s call, having to participate in “mandatory fun”…..all things that happen regularly that you just have to deal with. The military does not have the same rules of the normal job. It’s a 24/7 job…literally! They can call on you whenever…even if you are on leave, they can call you back. There is no “time off”…it’s “time away”.  It is very much a “how high” mentality…they say “jump” the troop jumps. It’s like this over the piddly day-to-day crap, because it needs to be like this when it counts. It’s all about conditioning…and practice…lots and lots of practice!! (and 12 hour shifts that turn into 14, and missing meals, not having heat or AC or a bed, and going on 6 hours of sleep, and doing it in the rain/snow/sleet/…just not lightning!…yes it totally sucks, but you are not the one doing it! [unless you are ;)]

Now, on to the families. I don’t want to leave you out because you are SO much of what makes your military member be able to do their job!  They need to feel that all is secure on the homefront so they can concentrate on what then need to do!  They need a support system that will understand when they have to go…again…after they just got back 9 months ago. They need to know that there is something worth fighting for….something to come home to. They also need love….lots and lots of love in the form of MAIL!!! Ha ha! I know it’s tough being a spouse…I am one! And I know what it’s like on the other side so it gives me a bit of an advantage in handling the issues. It is a tough tough job to be the spouse of a military member! I have not seen my husband for 5 months…and I will not see him for another 3 1/2. I’ll have him for 10 days then he’ll have to go back for another 3 months….so a full year he’ll have been gone…..just 9 months after he got back from a 6 month deployment. In the 9 years we have been together, this will be our 4th deployment (his 5th). We have missed birthdays, anniversaries…twice we have missed Christmas! (and will again this year). And this is just talking about the deployments! There is also training. A month or 2 of training before shipping out on a deployment, upgrade training, cross-training, tech school training, combat training….SO MUCH TRAINING!!! Now imagine if I had kids…or if I had major medical issues (lucky for us, all of my issues happen when he’s here…knock on wood!)…and I am away from home and my family…away from my whole support system! Imagine how hard that would be!! If you are a military spouse reading this, you don’t have to imagine because you know! I always tell J, that being the one who has to stay home is much harder than being the one who has to go. Yes the deployment is stressful, but everything is ingrained into them and they just have to do their job….basically. They don’t have to think about bills, or getting the dog to the vet, or picking up the girl from ballet and taking the boy to baseball….all the million things the spouses worry about daily, they don’t! Laundry…is about the only thing they have to take care of (aside from work stuff). Instant single-parent. It’s tough! And it’s stressful!! Spouses need to know that what they do is not going unnoticed….and it’s not! 😉

So now that I’ve established that it’s tough on both sides of the war, I think we can agree that the U.S. Veteran (and the family) has the toughest job there is, and deserve more recognition and thanks than they ever get! My life is not all roses at the moment, but I also know that there are families who have it worse than I do. And I know it’s not forever…there is an end in sight, and, to me, that is all I need to get through.  🙂

So how ’bout a song?? I did have a list going, and I’ll list them below, but I just didn’t want to make my blog a sloppy boogery mess! Of all my song choices, I chose to highlight this one because it really talks to what our military members do and represent. It’s not all about dying, or letters and lost love….it’s the best representation of the military mentality in a song, I think. Enjoy!!

American Soldier- Toby Keith